A-B-Tree reprint complete
Added at 16:37 on 01 December 2025
A-B-Tree is available to purchase again! Here's the link.
A-B-Tree is my set of 18 poems based on the Gaelic Tree Alphabet, which links each letter to a native woodland species. I wrote it while poet in residence at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh in 2013, and it was runner up in the Overton Prize for poetry sequences in 2015. The pamphlet I produced for the poems is a unique piece of handwork, printed on recycled paper with a concertina of beautiful images by Bill Ritchie, all featuring the symbols from the old inscription script called 'Ogham'.
One of many unusual things about the pamphlet is I have designed it so that the poems grow up from the bottom of the pages - after all, trees don't hang from the sky. We're so used to white space around poems being largely underneath them and it's remarkable how poems seem different when there is a stretch of air above the words!
Over the years it has been one of my most popular books and I keep reprinting it and spending hours folding the picture sheets and sticking them in. Since The Lost Elms came out there seems to have been a resurgence of interest in my tree poetry and so it sold out again last month. I'm pleased to be able to announce that it is available again - here.
I'll be 're-launching' it and reading from The Lost Elms at an event I'm very excited to be taking part in at Borgie Forest on Saturday 6 December, celebrating 25 years since they created the wonderful A' Chraobh tree alphabet spiral. Read about the event here.